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Monday, 11 December 2017

In my last blog, I introduced the music publishing topic. Today, I will explain how songwriters and music publishers make money from music.

Licensing of music can be likened to the renting out
of music like the way we borrow movies from the video club.

The
songwriter/music publisher own the rights to the song but are lending it out to
interested parties in the music for which the music publisher collects a
license fee and royalties with respect to this music.Below are the following ways and their explanations are below;

The following are ways by which a songwriter can
make money from his or her song;

MECHANICAL ROYALTIES

Mechanical licensing is the
licensing of copyrighted musical compositions for use on CDs, records, tapes
and certain digital formats.

A
song writer is entitled to receive a compulsory mechanical license fee when
ever his/her song is used in a mechanized fashion.

This
means that when a songwriter writes a song for a record label or an independent
music artiste, the songwriter/publisher will collect an amount of money from
one CD sold and from online downloads from streaming companies. This can be fixed at say, N50 for every CD sold and for every download
on ITunes, Spotify, Yahoo music, etc.

Mechanical Royalties are generated from
album sales and digital download sales.

For
example, if an artiste manufactures 1,000 CDs and only 500 copies of the music
CD is sold, the songwriter is entitled to a percentage of all the 1,000 copies of
the CD. It does not matter if the music artiste sells everything or not.This
is how it is done in advanced countries where the actual number of CD sales or
digital downloads is known. In
Nigeria where we do not have accurate statistics of album sales and digital
downloads. So, a music publisher like me will collect a fixed amount of mechanical
royalty up to about N5m (depending on the caliber of the musician; it could be
more), the remaining will be collected in form of other types of royalties.

PERFORMANCE
ROYALTIESAs a songwriter/publisher,
you are owed a royalty whenever your compositions are performed “in public.”
This includes:

Song play on terrestrial radio

Usage on network and cable
TV

Song play on online radio

A popular song can earn thousands
and sometimes millions of Naira for the songwriter through the collection of
performance royalties.

Performance
royalties are collected from radio and TV broadcasters, etc. by the Performing Rights
Organizations in Nigeria namely;

The Copyright Society of Nigeria
(COSON)

The Musical Copyright Society of
Nigeria (MCSN)

These
performance rights organizations negotiate blanket licenses with all those who
use music for profit on radio, TV, commercials, in clubs, etcPerformance Rights
Organizations monitor radio and television broadcasts and pay publishers/songwriters
based on projected uses of a song.

Performance royalties pertain to the
money songwriters earn from radio airplay, television, music
services and live performances.

SYNCHRONIZATION LICENSCES

Synchronization Licenses are
licenses issued to have music used in film, television, commercials, music videos,
etc.

A songwriter earns money from
songs placed in TV or Film from the Synch licensing fee paid up front by the film maker or executive producer.

These Synchronization license
fees and royalties are generated by songwriters by licensing their songs to be
used in TV, Films, commercials, etc.

Synch
typically means
licensing the right to record the music or songs in synch with the pictures of
film or TV movies, etc. The songwriter/publisher is paid a negotiated fee
to use the song in the movie.
Note that a sync license gives the
license holder the right to only RE-RECORD a song for use in a media
project.

For example, if the song will
be sung by one of the characters (actor/actress) in a film, a sync license will beissued.

For example, If Spiff in
the sit-com, The Johnsons, sings Yemi Alade’s Johnny, a synch license will be issued
by the music publisher to Africa Magic.

A master license gives the license holder the right to use a
pre-existing recording of that song in a media project. This means that a song
will be used in a film exactly the way it was sung by the music performer and a
master license will be issued to the
executive film producer. This type of license costs more.

For example, if Wiz Kid’s
Ojuelegba is played in a party scene in a movie/drama, etc, a master license is
issued by the music publisher to the producer of that film.

It is important to understand
the difference between and a master
license and a synch license if
you’re trying to get your songs in film or TV. A master license is obtained
from the person who owns the recording (in other words, owns the master). Often
time master licenses are obtained from the record labels.

SAMPLING LICENSES

If someone wants to use a
drumbeat, sound bite or any other portion of a song you have written and
recorded, they must first get your permission and then also pay you royalties
for its use.Both copyright holders (the
owner of the master recording and the songwriter/publisher) are owed money when
an artiste uses a sample from another artiste’s original work.

For example, before I produced the sample of Oritsefemi's Double Wahala, I sought permission from him via his manager.

Assuming that I was able to promote that song at that time and it was played on the radio several times and the video of the same song was played on TV, COSON or MSCN will collect royalties from the radio, TV and other performance venues and give the royalties made from this song to Ortisefemi.

If we listen to this song carefully, we will know that Double Wahala is not Oritsefemi's orignal composition. he sampled Fela Anikulapo's Double Wahala song even though he added his own lyrics too.

So, for a proper splitting of the royalties from the Double Wahala song, Fela Anikulapo's estate will receive half of the royalties from this song.

I will not receive any royalty from this song because I did not add any significant part to the song. I simply copied the lyrics with my talking drum.

This is how the sampling license works.

PRINT RIGHTS FOR SHEET MUSIC

As the songwriter/publisher,
you are paid whenever your composition is duplicated in print form, including
sheet music, lead sheets, books, etc.

FOREIGN MUSIC
LICENSING

Songwriters/ Publishers can
also enter into a foreign music licensing agreement with a foreign record
company and earn revenue.

With a foreign agreement, you
authorize a foreign record company to duplicate and sell copies of existing
masters.

A songwriter can earn foreign
royalties as a result of entering into a foreign licensing agreement with an
overseas record company or music publishing company.

VIDEO GAME LICENSING
& PLACEMENT

Equally important, songwriters
and producers can generate revenue by licensing their music to be placed in
video games.

When submitting your music to
video game developers directly, remember that certain games require certain
types of music to compliment the action on screen.

Try to find out exactly what
mood the developer is looking for and what games they are working on before
submitting your music.

The role of your music is to enhance the gamer’s
experience while they interact with the art on screen; it’s not supposed to
take center stage.The more your intention lay in
assisting the overall artistic vision of the project and not so much on just
landing a placement, the more likely the video game music supervisors will want
to work with you.

RINGTONES

Songwriters can make money from ringtones. Ringtones are provided by tele-communication company. You can negotiate with them to have your song used as a ringtone or have a music publisher represent you.

In my next blog, I will write
about why you need a music publisher and the meaning of music in public domain.I am musically yours,

You can call me DJ Irawo or O'Kemi Drummer. My brain is made up of the creative and business side of knowledge. I love to eat a mixture of Nkwobi and Abacha. I also love to read Shakespeare's plays at dusk and punch my calculator at dawn.

Saturday, 9 December 2017

“Music
publishing is the owning and exploiting of songs in the form of musical
copyrights.”
– Randall Wixen.

In most
aspects of life, “exploitation” is a bad thing but in the music industry,
exploiting a musical copyright is very, very good!

Music publishing is the business of turning songs into money; money that can be an
additional income especially if you are also a performing artiste.

Songwriting
and producing is the act of creating the music. Publishing is the act of
looking at that musical creation and thinking of the various revenue outlets
for it.

Let me break
it down. A song consists of two parts namely the;

Lyrics

Composition

The lyrics
are the words of a song and the
composition is the melody of that song.

A music
publisher can deal separately with a lyricist and a composer.

A lyricist
may write the words of a song and may not be talented enough to provide the
melody to that song. A music publisher can help with providing the melody to
that song if she is musically advanced or the lyricist can collaborate with other songwriters to create a song.A composer
could be a music producer or an instrumentalist who creates an original
composition on his or her musical instrument such as the drums, piano, violin,
guitar, etc. Yes, the music publisher works with composers of this nature.

Now, there
are some people who are vast in the writing of lyrics and in music
compositions. This kind of person is known as the songwriter.

This songwriter
will go to a music studio to record his or her song with a music producer. Only
a song with a melody provided by the songwriter can be understood by the music
producer. After the
song has been mastered and mixed, the songwriter sends it to the music publisher
for listening. If she likes it, she will invite you for a meeting to discuss the
profit sharing ratio and other business matters. If you agree with these
details, she will collect your details, give you a contract to sign and add
your song to her music catalogue for marketing to users of music.

In music
publishing, the songwriter is different from the music artiste usually known as
the performer.

In advanced
countries like the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia,
etc, music publishing is in operation and properly structured. Simple song
lyrics that we take for granted and sing anyhow in our movies, radio, etc, are
paid for in advanced countries.

The song “Happy Birthday To You” which is owned
by Warner Chapell Publishing and written by two sisters, Patty Hill and Mildred
J. Hill in 1893, generates about $5000 per day ($2 million per year) in
publishing royalties.

The company insists that one cannot sing the “Happy
Birthday to You” lyrics for profit without paying royalties. This includes its use
in film, television, radio, anywhere open to the public or even among a group
where a substantial number of those in attendance are not family or friends of
whoever is performing the song.

However,
effective from January 1, 2017, the music and lyrics of the Happy Birthday song
have now entered into public domain.
In a future post, I will explain what public domain means.

Many times,
when we hear popular foreign music on the radio and television, we are quick to
assume that the popular artiste that you see performing a song in a music video is the writer of
that song. Usually, this is not the case.

Music artistes like Whitney Houston,
Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, Rihanna, Beyonce, etc have had their songs written
by songwriters.

Performing music artistes can also write
songs for other music artistes

For example;
R. Kelly wrote, I Look Up To You and
it was performed by Whitney Houston. He also wrote Back
And Forth and Age Ain’t Nothing But
A Thing, performed by Aaliyah; Platinum,
performed by Snoop Dog, etc. This means that as a performing musician, I can
also write songs for other music artistes/musicians just like Runtown wrote a song for Davido.Read about the songs that Davido bought from other performing music artistes

Whitney
Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love
You” was a mega hit. But the person who truly made money offthis song
was the songwriter Dolly Parton.

Singer/Songwriter,
The Dream, stated that he earned about $15 Million in publishing royalties for
writing the song Umbrella for
Rihanna.

Chris Brown
has also written songs for other music artistes like; Rihanna, Bad Girl; Fat Joe, Another Round, etc.

Solo Songwriters

A single person may write a song just like in the above examples or R. Kelly,The Dream. Michael
Jackson and Chris Brown wrote most of their own songs.

Other
examples of solo song writers who do not perform their music but write for
music artistes are; Neil Ellwood Peart
born September 12, 1952, is a Canadian-American musician and author, best
known as the drummer and primary lyricist for the rock band Rush.

Bernie
Taupin wrote most of Elton John’s
songs.

Multiple
Songwriters

Many hit songs have been written by more than
one songwriter; collaboration, a case of two heads is better than one.

I do not know whether Nigerian songwriters who
feature each other on their songs have such music publishing arrangements in place.
This is necessary, for songwriters to earn money and for the music industry to
grow.

You can call me DJ Irawo or O'Kemi Drummer. My brain is made up of the creative and business side of knowledge. I love to eat a mixture of Nkwobi and Abacha. I also love to read Shakespeare's plays at dusk and punch my calculator at dawn.

Sunday, 3 December 2017

To a large extent, the kind of business that you do will
determine how far you will go in business.

Steps to take in determining the kind of business to start;

Choose a business based on what you love doing.

Choose a business that will be convinient to do.

Choose a business on what you are already good at.

Consider your financial status when choosing a business. Ensure that you have enough capital to start the business.

Think of a product or service in demand but currently under-provided.

You can opt for a franchise as a business idea. For example, if you want to start an eatery business and your want quick customers, you may go and get a franchise from a company like Sweet Sensation that already has customers instead of starting an entirely new business.

You can put two or more options together. For example, at
Drumline Entertainment, I put together about six options. This is because my
kind of services cannot all be requested for at once. At Drumline
Entertainment, I am a musician (drummer, singer, songwriter, DJ), music
publisher, scriptwriter, blogger, drum teacher, corporate drumming organizer
and business consultant. I am very good at organization and accounting is the
reason why I can decide to do these tasks all together and of course, one will
come after the other as all these jobs do not come all at once.

In my next blog, I will write about the signs that you are in the right business.

You can call me DJ Irawo or O'Kemi Drummer. My brain is made up of the creative and business side of knowledge. I love to eat a mixture of Nkwobi and Abacha. I also love to read Shakespeare's plays at dusk and punch my calculator at dawn.

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You can call me DJ Irawo or O'Kemi Drummer. My brain is made up of the creative and business side of knowledge. I love to eat a mixture of Nkwobi and Abacha. I also love to read Shakespeare's plays at dusk and punch my calculator at dawn.